YEAR 3 - BA3a - Task 1 - Finished Hallway

The hallway starts with a 20 second elevator ride. I wanted to create the impression that the hallway was in a remote location so I imply that the player is far from ground level. This also gives the player time to get a feel for the controls and most players will try to click the buttons during this time because they have nothing else to do. Although the buttons have no function, they do react to the player clicking on them. I did this to teach the player early on that they can click on things in the game because it's an important function used later on.

The first thing the player sees when the elevator doors open is basically pitch black. The lighting from the elevator shines out onto the walls to let the player know that they only need to walk forwards. I intentionally left a fairly large gap between the elevator floor and the ground because I want the player to feel uneasy walking over this gap and into the dark hallway.

The window with bricks is a nod to David Lynch's Eraserhead and I use it few quite a few things. Firstly it acts as a visual marker in the pitch black to allow the player to judge their bearings. It also acts as a dim light source which can only be seen from the blue room causing an inconsistency in the players mind as well as making the hallway more visually interesting the second time through. It's also intended to make players uneasy (especially ones with a history of horror game), since it's a space where something could jump out at you when your back is turned. Many players walk backwards away from the wall. Finally, I was hoping the absurdity of a window leading directly to a wall should put the players on edge. A bit like how the hallways don't link together in a reasonable way in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

There's a piano (downloaded a royalty free model) in the hallway that is a major set piece and requires interacting with to progress. To make this clear I've raised it up to bring more attention to it. I also try to teach the player that they can interact with things by making the buttons in the elevator pressable in the long sequence in the beginning. I've tested the game with 2 different people who don't normally press games and both of them have figured out fairly quickly that they can interact with the piano.

After touching the piano the door previous swings open. I was considering adding a swinging sound effect but because of the obvious light difference every one has noticed fairly quickly. I made sure the door opened in such a way that it didn't obscure the players view of the light from the blue room.

This door leads to the second part of the hallway which has another major color change. Once the player is inside, the door swings shut and piano music starts to play (Funeral March, Op. posth. 72). Because the player already knows where the piano is, this music gives them the goal of finding the piano again to find out who is playing it.

This part of the hallway has a very dark section and I've hidden a trigger box in it that teleports the player into the dark part of the other bit of the corridor. This allows the player to escape the room whilst playing with their sense of geography.

When the player gets back to the piano the elevator opens again allowing them to leave. I give the player the choice of messing with the piano a second time for a bit of an 'alternate ending'.

Given that the player has no other direction to go in here, they eventually find themselves back at the open elevator where I restart the level.

Throughout the hallway I'm trying to imply some kind of narrative about this huge man and possibly some kind of water related death but honestly that just sort of developed as I was making the hallway and was not planned from the beginning.